1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to semiconductor integrid circuit chips, and more particularly to power supply arrangement for integrated circuit chips
2. Description of the Related Art
Integrated-circuit technology currently uses multiple power and ground conductors for integrated circuits and various peripheral circuits in order to increase their operating performance and reliability. This arrangement requires that the layout plan must accommodate such conductors without increasing chip size. One solution is to provide a number of equipotential pads and provide as many power-line conductors within the interior of a chip as there are necessary for each of these pads.
Since there is a need for protecting sensitive circuit elements of an integrated circuit chip from electrostatic charges, protecting elements (or voltage sensitive devices) are located at strategic points of power-line conductors to allow "charge packets" to escape through discharge paths. However, overvoltage tests seem to indicate that part of integrated circuits still suffers from high potential charges.